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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Home Town Glory

There's always a huge rush of feelings every time I land at Helsinki international airport. I'm not even quite sure what it is, just that it's a mixture of happy nostalgia to flat out confusion. I am immediately overwhelmed by the fact that I understand everyone without having to focus, but at the same I don't understand what they're on about. From the mishaps in slang (my Finnish is at the level of a sixth grader) and straight out culture shock, I always end up drawing in for a quiet night than go out and explore my home country. This time however, because things at home have changed drastically forcing me way out of my own comfort zone, I decided to go out and actually see what Finland is really like for a 20 year old. From my old elementary school to the park where I had my first real kiss everything has changed, but only on the outside. My school was still in it's glorious red brick form, although the children didn't play on the monkey bars like we did. (They were just playing on their phones and using the monkey bars as a chair.) Going around the neighbourhood that I had at some point called home got me to realise that there are so many things I miss. Despite my anxiety of coming back to a country that I should feel is my home, but inevitably always makes me feel more foreign than any other place. The little things in Finnish life like;

2. Food; Finnish food may not be a cuisine, or have many delicacies, but it's comforting and tastes like home

3. Architecture, sometimes simple is better.

4. History, we still have my childhood home in (Nöykkiö) Espoo, near Helsinki, and from time to time I love to go rummage in the ruins of my pre-adolescent closet. These things remind me of once having a home here. And on the good days of exploring my home town glory, I'll hit the jackpot. Like these adidas superstar sneakers. My grandma bought them for me on my 12th birthday, I wore them like twice. Now that they've resurfaced I wear them all the time. (But just fyi I do still have other shoes, just didn't have enough luggage space to take them with me). So like pulling a pink cardigan over an overused chill casual outfit of mine, I saw things with new eyes. The thing about Finland is that it's so glorious for being so simple, the few quirks that it has are what makes it so missable. (That and it's also the head quarters for my Long-Distance-Family)